There are a lot of images I didn’t find sources for that I suspect are likely not originally his work but searching is failing me (or maybe my covid brain?) so definitely peruse the galleries to see if anything is familiar.
The girl running this thing, Tina, aka Photos by Teenzy, is a photographer in Ohio and posted in a local photographer’s group a couple weeks ago trying to find models for her hosted styled shoot in March.
I immediately clocked that the photos were Pinterest and informed her that this was copyright infringement. She clapped back that this is mood boards and asked if I was familiar with the concept of Pinterest. Apparently she GNFs because here we are.
Today she’s blasting the boards across the whole of what feels like Ohio looking for photographers to pay $375 and is using the mood boards as advertisement.
If you’ve been wondering why I’ve had some Facebook rants lately about Pinterest not being a source, here is why.
I mean, for one board (peach) she basically used all the images from the Brides article for the 2024 Pantone Color of the Year and they all have the original photographers easily linked. It would take just two seconds to email the original photographers to get permission.
Even *if* the whole Pinterest-images-can-be-used-in-mood-boards-that-are-also-ads thing was legit, it’s blown out of the water with the fact that the brochure is FULL of images that Tina/Teenzy does not have the intellectual property rights to use. I did really like the added detail of a stolen image on the page with COMMUNITY OVER COMPETITION, DUH on it.
I had a tough time nailing down sources for all of these so if you see something you recognize let me know.
When I start a post with so many AKAs known already you know it’s going to be a long one.
*nmp* is a new one to me for what I am assuming means “not my photos.” Even if it was widely known what nmp meant even spelling it out doesn’t matter – you can’t use photos to advertise your own work without permission from the copyright holder. Full stop.
There’s at least one post in a local group that was found with stolen wedding photos and no disclaimer about these not being her photos and I’m sure there’s more that I haven’t been sent (yet).
One thing I noticed when searching this photographer out is that she posts *everywhere* so check your local Facebook Groups to make sure she’s not in there. She’s based in North Carolina but I found posts in Pennsylvania, New York, Montana, Tulsa, Colorado, Tennessee, Salt Lake City, Pensacola, Chattanooga, Outer Banks, basically everywhere in the United States she’s in a local wedding group.
While the copyright infringement is the main story here, there is also a side story that Courtney allegedly has a history of not delivering photos/is slow to refund and is why she’s changed her business name in mid 2023 after conversations like this popped up in local groups. This story is at the bottom of the page with the update.
Update 1/29/2024:
It turns out the above was just the tip of the iceberg and there’s a lot of people out there who have had issues with Courtney.
In summary – she has allegedly canceled many times on clients at the last minute for boudoir sessions and weddings. She has allegedly sometimes sent in subpar photographers but sometimes she hasn’t sent in anyone at all. This girl allegedly gets covid a LOT. She allegedly rarely delivers albums. She allegedly owes a LOT of refunds.
She also posted this as an excuse before unpublishing her Facebook page.
This wall of shame is dedicated to photographers that feel that it's okay to steal others' work and post it as their own. Oh I'm sorry, it's okay to let their "web designer" do it.